Mahtab Singh sips a milk-tea in a food court in Sugar Land. Enjoying the sunshine, he is dressed in business attire, sleeves rolled up, wearing a traditional dastar, or turban, that Sikh men wear. Tables around him include Anglos, other Indians/Pakistanis and a few Vietnamese.

According to the 2010 U.S. Census, there are more than 280,000 Asians in the Houston metro area. The four largest Asian communities are Vietnamese (28.7 percent of the Asian population), Indian/Pakistani (18 percent), Chinese/Taiwanese (16 percent) and Filipino (8 percent).

Klineberg said that Asian immigrants have been relatively successful here, and their children are doing even better.

But the study also revealed Asians tend to earn less than their Anglo counterparts and that "many Vietnamese are having a difficult time in the Houston area, and they may be less likely to receive the help they need, in a language they can understand, from a wider community that continues to believe that all the Asians are doing fine."

The group, however, includes people of 27 nationalities, with dissimilar languages, religions and cultural practices. "Houston (and America) is turning into a microcosm not only of the world's peoples but also of the world's religions," said Klineberg.

Overall, Asians in Houston are evenly split between being Christian and non-Christian (41 percent and 40 percent, respectively), and nearly one-fifth are "nones." Filipinos are by far the most religious and Catholic (75 percent). Almost two-thirds of Koreans in Houston are Protestant. Indians/Pakistanis are almost evenly split between Hindus and Muslims (37 percent and 33 percent, respectively), and 45 percent of Vietnamese are Buddhist. In contrast to these communities, especially Filipinos, Chinese/Taiwanese are "the least likely of the major Asian communities to express strong religious commitments."